Browse Items (53 total)

Leaf 13. "It is usually difficult to distinguish the miniature or portable Bibles by the young Dominican firars in England from those written in France" (Ege). "The original master text was carelessly transcribed again and again. It may even have…

Leaf 12. "This small Psalter leaf illustrates the fact that, although skilled scribes were available in many monasteries in the XIIIth century, some of the monks who attempted to apply and burnish the gold leaf were still struggling with many…

Leaf 11. "In the XIIIth century Italy was distraught by the long struggle between the papal and anti-imperialistic Guelphs and the autocratic and imperialistic Ghibellines. Little encouragment was given to either party by the arts. This leaf reveals,…

Leaf 10. "The line endings of a fish, elongated or shortened as the space required, and the grinning expression of the fish emblem have in some book circles given these German Psalters the nickname "Laughing Carp" Psalters" (Ege). "The lozenge heads…

Leaf 9. "These minature or portable manuscript copies of the Jerome version of the Bible were nearly all written by the young wandering friars of the newly founded order of Dominicans" (Ege). "They were used sparingly, as is evidenced by their still…

Leaf 8. "Graduals are the books containing the chants for celebration of the mass. Engish manuscripts of this early date are rare. This volume, with the uncertain strokes in the script, seems to indicate that the transcriber was unaccostomed to…

Leaf 7. This famous paraphrase of the Bible in Latin verse was one of the most popular Latin books of poetry of the late XIIth and XIIIth century" (Ege). "The format of this page, twice as long as it is wide, demonstrates the English custom of…

Leaf 6. "The only Bible known to Western Europe for the thousand years from 400 to 1400 was this version by St. Jerome" (Ege)."The decorative initials, color of ink, and texture of vellum are the clues which aid in assigning provenance, as in this…

Leaf 5. "This translation of the Bible was made by Jerome at the request of Pope Damasus" (Ege). "The angular book hand, executed with amazing skill and precision, reflects the spirit of contemporary architecture of the early XIIIth century. Closely…

Leaf 4. "This text is from a special arrangment of the Psalms.""The author of the arrangment represented by this leaf is unknown" (Ege). "The words which were inserted in the margin are not corrections but were added as guides to the content of the…